Devlok With Devdutt Pattanaik Read online

  The caste system plays an important role in the Mahabharata as well. Dronacharya is a Brahmin who is so poor that he has to become a soldier to earn money. By doing this, he starts following Kshatriya dharma. This begs the question: have the bounds of caste been transgressed? When a child is adopted, what will be his varna—that of his birth parents or adoptive parents? All these issues come up in the Mahabharata. The orderly theoretical structure comes under question when confronted with practical situations. What is Krishna’s varna? He is born in the Yadava Vansh but has been raised by cowherds. Karna has been raised by Suta parents but he wants to become a soldier, a rathi, not a sarathi—he wants to be a warrior, although his adoptive father is a charioteer. His desire goes against his varna. This question too is raised.

  Karna wants to learn from the great sage Parashurama who teaches only Brahmins, not Kshatriyas. When asked by Parashurama whether he’s a Kshatriya, Karna replies in the negative. One day, just to avoid disturbing his sleeping guru, Karna bears the pain of a scorpion bite without a murmur. Parashurama discovers Karna’s deception, because he knows no Brahmin would have that level of endurance. He curses him, saying that Karna will forget everything he has learnt from him just when he needs it most.

  Here, it’s almost as if he’s talking about a psychological varna; Parashurama is speaking of the qualities of a Kshatriya. Is it the sociological or the psychological varna that Parashurama is referring to here—it is not clear. The question becomes complex here—is Karna cursed because he deceived his guru or because he pretended to possess a Brahmin’s qualities? Varna, rules, jati are issues that arise here, and in Karna’s story they play a big role.

  Does the caste system exist only in Hinduism in India or does it exist in other religions in other countries as well?

  First you have to ask whether the caste system is associated with religion or sanskriti (culture). Both are not the same. Caste is also seen in other religions in India. Here, even converts to Christianity and Islam still follow the caste system. It’s also seen in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. So it exists as a culture in the Indian subcontinent. As for the rest of the world, matters of aukaat or status exist everywhere else. But the concept of shuddhikaran is very specific to South Asia. The idea of which jobs are clean or unclean is unique to the subcontinent.

  I always say that there’s not much difference between caste system and visa. Remove shuddhikaran from this and there are similarities. There’s a roti-and-beti system in one; there’s a visa system in the other. Before granting a visa, they check whether you have money; poor people usually don’t get entry. If not money, they will ask whether you have any useful skills; for instance, if they’re looking for a plumber, and you know the job then you’ll be allowed to go there, not otherwise. Without the requisite money or skill you are denied entry into a foreign country—this too is a kind of caste system.

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  Sita and Draupadi

  It is said that the wars in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were caused by the two women—Sita and Draupadi. What are your thoughts on this?

  This statement could have only been made by a man. In the Puranas and the Vedas, it’s said that the cause of everything is karma, action, which is neither male nor female. In our stories, it is usually the male characters that play a more active role, while the female characters play a passive role. Thus kaaran (cause) is women and kriya (action) is by men. It’s not exactly correct because anyone can do kriya and there can be any kaaran.

  Both Sita and Draupadi had a svayamvara. Did the women in those times actually have the right to choose their own husband?

  According to the Puranas, in a svayamvara, a woman can choose her husband. Like Indumati chose Aja, Rama’s grandfather, or Savitri selected Satyavan. In the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, however, it is a svayamvara only in name, because the decision, the choice is not made by the women. The women are won as trophies in an archery contest. In Tulsidas’ Ramayana, Rama and Sita meet in a garden and fall in love before the svayamvara. But that is a poetic rendition as the original story is not so satisfying. In the Valmiki Ramayana, Rama comes to Mithila, and Vishwamitra asks Janaka to give the young men a chance to lift the bow. Janaka agrees and offers his daughter’s hand to whoever is able to do it. Rama lifts the bow, and breaks it too, and so Sita is married to him. It is not really an arranged marriage nor is it a svayamvara. Basically, she’s awarded as a prize for winning the competition.

  Rama and Sita’s story is always told as a love story but Draupadi does not seem to have the same relationship with the Pandavas . . .

  No, she doesn’t really. Draupadi too has a svayamvara. Here, an archer has to shoot the eye of a moving fish by looking at its reflection in the water below. Her father, King Dhrupad, knows that Arjuna is the greatest archer in Bharatvarsha, and will definitely win the competition, and Draupadi will enter the Kuru Vansh as a bride; Dhrupad intends to eventually destroy the Kurus. However, matters don’t go according to plan. The Kauravas burn the lac house they’d given the Pandavas, who are believed to be dead. Although Dhrupad’s plan has been thwarted by this event, he holds the svayamvara anyway, since his daughter has to be married. He is unaware that the Pandavas have survived and are hiding in the forest as Brahmins. At the svayamvara, when Karna comes forward, Draupadi and her brother Drishtadyumna both reject him as a Sutaputra (son of a Suta, charioteer), who is therefore not qualified to participate. No Kshatriya present there is able to meet the target. Then Brahmins are invited. Among them is Arjuna in disguise, and he wins the contest.

  He takes Draupadi to his mother and says, ‘Look what I won in the archery contest.’ Without turning around to see, Kunti tells him to share it with his brothers. How are they supposed to share a woman? Who will be the first husband, who the second? Who has a right over her? All these issues come up in the Mahabharata, which Vyasa handles very delicately. Narada arrives and tells the Pandavas a story about two rakshasa brothers. Indra wanted to divide them, because together they were a threat to him. He sent the apsara Tilottama, who told them that she loved them both and did not know whom to choose. The two rakshasa brothers started arguing and, to Indra’s satisfaction, ended up killing each other. This was their first argument ever, and it was over a woman. The Pandavas understood the moral behind the story, where Tilottama was a metaphor for Draupadi. So a decision was taken that Draupadi would stay with each husband for a year, then walk through fire, become a kumari (virgin) again, and go to the next Pandava. Arjuna realizes that although she is his wife, he will get access to her only after five years, due to the rotation method.

  You feel a little bad because there is logistical planning being done between husband and wife. But the idea here is to know who the father of Draupadi’s child is. That can only be ascertained if she stays faithful to one husband for a year.

  Tell us about Sita’s and Draupadi’s births.

  They both have unique births; they are ayonija, a word that’s used a lot in the Puranas. It means one not born from a yoni, womb; so, we all are yonijas. Janaka, the king of Mithila, is ploughing a field when he finds a pot with a baby girl in it. This girl is Sita. Seet means furrow, the lines that are created on ploughing a field; thence her name.

  Draupadi is born from a yagna kund. Her father, Dhrupad, the king of Panchal, is burning in the fire of revenge. He has a disagreement with his friend Drona over a promise he’d made to him when they were children, which was to grant him half his kingdom. Drona later uses his Kaurava and Pandava pupils to subdue and capture Dhrupad, but returns Dhrupad half his kingdom. Once freed, Dhrupad goes to the rishis Yaja and Upayaja and pleads with them for the boon of a son who will destroy Drona. The rishis tell him that what he wants can be a boon or a curse, shuddh or ashuddh (pure or impure). Dhrupad is insistent and the yagna is conducted. Dhrupad gets his son, as well as a daughter. Since she’s born from a yagna, Draupadi is also called Yagnaseni.

  Both Sita and Draupadi are in a way adopted. They don’t have birth mo